The Oat Milk Revolutionaries
Today's protest culture is a rehash of 60's radicalism, just less tasty and satisfying.
Settler colonialism, stolen land, inherent violence, disband the campus police force, 50% decarbonization by 2030, reparations - all things a “spokesperson” for the pro-Hamas occupiers at the University of Chicago accused and demanded yesterday.
At UCLA, a masked protester said:
“There needs to be an adjustment of U.S. imperialism and its ties to the UC system and how it perpetuates war and violence abroad – and not only abroad but here locally. We see this with the brutality – the police brutality black and brown students face here at UCLA face – Arab students, Muslim students, Palestinian students – and I, myself, personally have like faced those violences that uh that UC has perpetuated and continues to perpetuate. Its not just a means of divestment, it is a divestment from Zionism…”
Well, OK… and it is not just the students, the nose-ringed, pink haired, soy boy faculty are in on it as well, one of whom I saw in a clip saying the students are justified in protesting because Israel has “murdered 34,000” in Gaza.
It seems to be the standard communist argument, one basically unchanged (except for the target of criticism) since the heady days of the Students for a Democratic Society, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Not that I want to see police murdered, bombs set at military installations, and kidnappings, but the modern revolution seems to lack conviction to match their addiction.
It is the oat milk revolution, the less tasty version of 60’s radicalism.
But the argument is the same. Everything is messed up and it is capitalism’s fault. Freedom and independence are bad things and everything in history was done wrong to cause civilization to be so awful, and we, the people who have never accomplished a damn thing, know what you old people did wrong, and we can do it right. We know because our professors told us so.
It is the same old BS we see every day now – the perceived offenses (words and ideas are violence – as is silence), the same old assumption of victimhood (all POC are victims), the same old equivocation of harm (refusing to use “preferred” pronouns is the same as dropping a bomb), the same old hyperbolic view of harm (in their world, not having entity they are protesting cater their protests is the same as starving them).
It is almost as if they believe that thousands of years ago, mankind had a perfect plan for a perfect civilization and after a few beers, just looked at the plan and said, “Yeah, we are not gonna do that.”
From “settler colonialism” and “occupation” to conquest of less powerful cultures, these Roadkill Scholars in the “encampments” just know that all the issues they see were intentional and not part of the trial-and-error processes all civilization and cultures in human history have undergone. They are like that spouse who can look back in history and tell their partner everything they did wrong in every situation and what they should have done. Their hindsight is always 20/20.
It is something called “presentism” – an idea that only things in the present exist and all history is to be judged by the present rather than being understood in the context of the times.
Since humans began to walk upright, we have learned by trial and error because even though we may have an inkling of how things will turn out, there are no guarantees.
One thing that is certain is the future is never certain.
While there are no guarantees for the future, there is substantial evidence to mine from history if we only seek and learn from that evidence.
Today’s campus radicals do not seek to learn from history because they cannot. You cannot learn from what you do not know.
There are so many thoughts floating around in my head after reading your article. I remember what a professor said and that was that if you want to find a common ground or at least a uniting ground amongst diverse groups - find a common enemy you can agree with. Just like in Independence Day when the world's people came together to fight the common enemy - the Aliens.
These skulls full of mush (thank you Rush), have latched onto common enemies (depending upon your group of belonging). They protest to be part of the group, and they feel part of the group as long as they protest. BTW - this does not count for the paid actors who will protest anything as long as there is a paycheck involved.
I remember as a youth I had to work and go to school. I had little to no time for social things once I hit college level. Perhaps part of the issue is Capitalism...by that I mean maybe these protesters parents have too much disposable money that their protesting kids are living on.
What I would love to see is that the enemy becomes the politicians, or at the very least - The Dems.
Outstanding and of course oh so accurate..